ST. ANN, Mo.—For the first time in a presidential election year, Missouri voters can cast an early ballot without an excuse, starting Tuesday, and St. Louis area election officials are encouraging the public to take advantage of the period, which ends Nov. 4.
The no-excuse period was passed as part of a 2022 state law that also mandated voter ID. Starting Tuesday, voters can cast their ballot at an election authority’s headquarters or at satellite locations.
“The ballot is not a test. But it will feel like a test if you don’t prepare to vote,” said Eric Fey, the Democratic Election Director for St. Louis County at a Monday morning news conference with other election directors from the city of St. Louis and St. Louis County.
The county’s ballot is the largest in recent memory, if not ever, with a minimum of 40 choices on it, including municipal ballot questions, county and statewide ballot questions, and countywide, state and federal races.
Most if not all election authorities in the St. Louis region have sent out sample ballots. The message–fill them out at home and bring them with you to the polls to save everyone time.
“I've seen voters sit there for 40 minutes, I've seen it happen right outside my office,” said Ben Borgmeyer, the Democratic Election Commissioner for the city of St. Louis. “I see the same voter sitting for 40 minutes just staring at their ballot. It's important to vote early but also to understand the issues on the ballot.”
Jack McNamara stopped by the St. Louis County Board of Elections office in Northwest Plaza Monday to vote absentee with an excuse–he’ll be out of town on Nov. 5. He did his research ahead of time.
“We always look at it first, make our decisions so we’re not making decisions while we’re actually voting,” he said, adding that his work to be prepared meant it only took him 5-6 minutes when it was time for him to vote.
Election officials in St. Louis, St. Louis County and St. Charles County are all predicting somewhere in the neighborhood of 75% voter turnout through election day.
“If we're only going to get 15-20% to vote early, we're going to have a massive amount of people voting on election day which is going to make for long lines,” said Rick Stream, the Republican Election Director for St. Louis County.
Voters who are in line when the polls close at 7 p.m. on Nov. 5 are still allowed to vote, which means the process for counting the actual votes taken on Election Day could be delayed. Starting 5 days before Election Day, officials are allowed to start preparing absentee ballots to be counted as soon as 7 p.m. on Nov. 5.